Gas pains after gallbladder surgery?

I just had Gas laparoscopic cholecystectomy (gallbladder removal) on Wednesday. I have pain equivalent to the worst experienced pain of contraction during labor when I try to lay down. I've spent two nights sitting up on the couch to sleep. When I change from sitting to standing or standing to sitting, I get the pain all over again. It is NOT just in my right shoulder, it's all over, left shoulder and chest one time, then it moves to my back or my belly button, it's just all over and it's excruciating! I CAN NOT take a deep breath in ANY position. I'm miserable. Is this feeling normal or did my doctor screw up? My steri-strips stink and I'm having diarrhea. The three top insicions are not painful at all to touch, but if I come close to the incision at my belly button it sends pain like shockwaves through my body! Thanks for sharing your experiences if you've recently gone through it. If your're a doctor or nurse, any advise is appreciated! My surgeons office is useless. THX

I have no fever. Temp has been 95.4 for 2 days. I might research the fluid build-up theory. I'd love to lay down in my bed and sleep. And I'd love to just take a deep breath...yawn...or say a complete sentence without pain! Thanks for the help so far!

Hi there. My name is Michelle and I am a 22 year old female who had a laparoscopic cholecystectomy on May 9th--a little over two weeks ago. I went through the exact thing you are going through. I couldn't inhale deep, my shoulder blades hurt and so did the right side of my belly. I couldn't sneeze or cough. I thought something was terribly wrong, I couldn't sleep comfortably in any position! My original gallbladder pain didn't come close to this pain. I was nautious, too.

I continued to check my temperature thinking it must be an infection or an internal bile leak or something. However, when I researched bile leaks, I found out that they are extremely rare, and I didn't have any symptoms of an infection...just pain. My belly stuck out far because of swelling and air they pumped in to expand the cavity. I burped alot, and I almost cried when I did. I drank some ginger ale to settle my stomach not realizing the carbonation would expand my belly causing pressure. I swear I almost died! I don't recommend it!

After a several days on high doses of Percocet, I was finally able to sleep somewhat comfortably on the left side only. It was terrible because it would take me hours to fall asleep because moving killed! I figured would give it a little time before I called my doctor because a surgical mistake or an infection was unlikely--I was just healing. Believe it or not, but I used the belly bruise and my IV bruise as a judge for my pain. I figured if I had bruises on my belly and arm, I was probably still bruised inside, too. I thought I would call if the bruised faded, but the pain didn't

Like you, the belly incision did not even compare to the three top incisions. My belly even bruised dark purple then faded to yellow. It was very painful. I figured my surgeon cut something wrong, too. Thankfully, after about a week, I was feeling better enough to go to the store and ride one of those dumb carts. I was exhausted. At about the 10 day mark, I felt well enough to go to work, ( I had to go) but I was still exhausted and in pain, I needed to take breaks often.

Every day got remarkably better after about 10 days or so. I started drinking whey protein shakes and they helped alot with energy and gave my body some substance for the healing process. I recommend it.

Take the steri strips off, you can after about 48 hours, and you're past that. I would shower, too, because I had crusty blood on my back and that's just a bacteria breeding ground.

I'm relatively healed now, but I sometimes have these lightning strikes of pain like before, probably just nerves regenerating. Also, my belly button area is hard. It's kind of weird, but its healing still. It takes up to 8 weeks. I have diarrhea and have to take immodium. It should eventually pass. I still toss and turn a bit when I sleep. You can feel your insides move around a bit when you roll over, and then pain comes. I just kept rolling until the pain was tolerable.

This is my experience. Maybe it will help you get though the next two weeks. Email me with any additional questions you have, and I will be happy to answer.

its just the luaghing gas.

u are feeling the gas from the anesthesia. i had this surgury. relax it will go away.

This is normal.

Contact your doctor or go the the ER ASAP. You may have a build up of fluid behind your incision that needs to be drained. It is not usually a painful procedure and will help immensely. I had the same thing happen. It is caused by the outer skin sealing before the inner layers of skin have a chance to close. It can become a serious infection.

I had the same surgery 2 years ago. First of all, the diarrhea is normal.. but..it also sounds like you have an infection at the belly button incision area. Make sure that you are not running a temperature... very important! But what was supposed to be a simple surgery, landed me in the hospital for 7 weeks. One week after my surgery, and being in absolute pain, it was discovered that I had a massive bile leak where they cut the gall bladder from. My surgeon tried to say it was because I had not had a bowel movement and to take an enema and laxative... did not work... I stayed in the hospital for over a week that time. Went home for a few days, then went back to the emergency room because the pain was worse, and I could not breath... my legs were so swollen that you could not tell the difference between my knees, ankles and thighs...I was extremely dehydrated and they found another bile leak, and and the bile had pushed up my diaphram on the right side which also crushed my lung. Not only did I have drain bags for the bile, but one also for my lung. And when they put those in, it was the worst pain in the world, because you are awake and they only numb the area... I even had to return to work with a drain bag still in my side. For awhile, they were draining 700cc's of bile a day out of me... To this day, I have pain on that side, I believe I have a massive amount of scar tissue now covering that entire area. So... do not take their word for it. GO TO ANOTHER DOCTOR!!! TRUST ME... I wish I would have...I hope I did not scare you.... it is only to inform you that I do believe you and you should listen to your body. Do not suffer like I did.

Have you looked in a mirror lately? Check the color of your skin and the whites of your eyes, are they turning yellow(jaundiced) at all? Occasionally people will get a bile leak,due to anatomy anomalies such as extra bile ducts. Another possibility is a gallstone lodged in the common bile duct or if your laproscopic surgery took a long time with your gallbladder being large and/or difficult to get at you may simply have a lot of internal inflammation that is just going to take time to recover from.When you mention contractions,waves and moving from chest to back to abdomen and being `excruciating' it also makes me wonder about pancreatits. Anyway,at this stage of your recovery your surgeon should be checking on you to see what is going on.